Jul 26, 2011 06:46 GMT  ·  By

At a symposium that took place yesterday, July 25, in Tenerife, Spain, astronomers announce the discovery of a new planetary nebula, which is shaped like a soccer ball. The object was found by, and named after, Austrian amateur astronomer Matthias Kronberger.

He was browsing data in the Digital Sky Survey when he stumbled across the object. The amateur astronomer is part of a large team of people, who are working with professional astronomers to help them detect interesting objects in space.

These investigators mainly focus their research on the same portion of the sky that is covered by the NASA Kepler planet-hunting telescope. The work is being carried out at the request of professionals, who simply don’t have the time and manpower to do it themselves.

The newly-found planetary nebula was dubbed Kronberger 61 (Kn 61) and experts say that its discovery could lead to a better understanding of this class of objects as a whole, Space reports.

Some of the deepest mysteries related to this type of objects include knowing how surrounding objects – such as exoplanets, stars and supernovae – influence the development and evolution of the nebulae.

“Explaining the puffs left behind when medium-size stars like our Sun expel their last breaths is a source of heated debate among astronomers, especially the part that companions might play,” Orsola De Marco explains.

“It literally keeps us up at night!” adds the expert, who is based at the Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She adds that protoplanetary nebulae are called thusly because they bore a striking resemblance to gas giant planets, when viewed from early telescopes.

“Without this close collaboration with amateurs, this discovery would probably not have been made before the end of the Kepler mission,” explains George Jacoby, who is based at the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, and also at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, Calif.

“Professionals, using precious telescope time, aren't as flexible as amateurs, who did this using existing data and in their spare time. This was a fantastic pro-am collaboration of discovery,” he concludes.